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Animation Tip To Accessorise Your Characters

Hairdos, hats and accessories all play a big role in the creation of a character. Headwear can be put on for various reasons – as a fashion or costume accessory, an indicator of social status, a religious symbol or simply to cover up a bad hair day! With the help of accessories, anyone can easily recognise who your character is and what he does in your animation. Just think about Captain Hook’s red pirate hat and his signature hook, and the little dwarf hat and outfit that Dopey and Doc from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs wear as they sing “Heigh-Ho”.

Source: Two Animators Sarah’s Hats

Visualise Your Character in 360˚

As your character moves around and change into different positions, the accessories need to follow the movement. A good tip is to imagine the head with basic features as a sphere, use this sphere as the basis of a drawing and then add the hat in different angles. Do bear in mind to keep it all in proportions! You may want to use the sketches below as reference.

Source: TumblrSource: Tumblr

Show Off Your Hat at Mad Hatter: Hat Our Logo! Contest

Came up with some great hat designs? Why not show them off at the Mad Hatter: Hat Our Logo! Contest? You have until April 3 to post your specially designed headwear for the Animation Desk logo in the comment section of this Facebook post. The winners will win the Mad Hatter’s prizes including an Adonit Snap, a hat and the winning logo to be featured on App Store and Google Play, or on Animation Desk’s social media icons on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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About the author

Charmaine Cheung

As a graduate in languages from the University of Bristol, England, Charmaine is currently working in Hong Kong, specialised in marketing and corporate communications. She has a strong international background, is fluent in English, Chinese and German, and has lived and work in the UK, Germany, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

She has been doing some projects and blogging for Kdan Mobile since 2015.